Retailers ordered $42.22 million in comic books and graphic novels in December, a sum almost identical to that of November. Less than $9,000, or the sales of a single issue of a 400th-place title, separated November and December's orders. But last December was weaker than last November, so the result was an uptick in the year-to-year percentage change: the direct market ordered nearly 6% more dollars worth of comics and graphic novels this December than last December.

Orders for the fourth quarter totaled $134.79 million in comics and graphic novels, more than a million dollars better than the third quarter and an improvement of more than $6 million over the fourth quarter of 2012. Since the third quarter was already a record for the Diamond Exclusive Era, the fourth quarter represents the highest dollar value for a quarter, unadjusted for inflation, since the early 1990s.

The resulting sales for the year came in at around $517.66 million, which as reported earlier this week is an increase of 9% over last year's figure of $474.45 million.

The percentage change statistics:

DOLLARS

UNITS

DECEMBER 2013 VS. NOVEMBER 2013

Comics

0.63%

1.60%

Graphic Novels

-1.40%

3.67%

Total Comics and Graphic Novels

-0.03%

1.76%

DECEMBER 2013 VS. DECEMBER 2012

Comics

1.09%

-3.64%

Graphic Novels

18.02%

20.38%

Total Comics and Graphic Novels

5.93%

-2.07%

YEAR 2013 VS. YEAR 2012

Comics

10.22%

6.70%

Graphic Novels

6.50%

5.12%

Total Comics and Graphic Novels

9.04%

6.58%

FOURTH
QUARTER 2013 VS. THIRD QUARTER 2013

Comics

-0.72%

-2.39%

Graphic Novels

5.79%

2.09%

Total Comics and Graphic Novels

1.23%

-2.06%

FOURTH
QUARTER 2013 VS. FOURTH QUARTER 2012

Comics

4.16%

-0.97%

Graphic Novels

7.80%

9.50%

Total Comics and Graphic Novels

5.28%

-0.22%

IDW had a dollar market share of 8.18%, a record for the publisher; it was good enough to put the company into the third place slot. The previous high for IDW was 7.54%, in April 2013. It's the only time in 2013 IDW placed third; it did so three times each in 2011 and 2012, first doing so in June 2009. See other Diamond-era records here.

The next three publishers after Marvel and DC had 21.78% of the dollar orders: this is the highest total for that sub-grouping since February 2003, when it was 23.47% (with the CrossGen in IDW's place). The market shares for December:

PUBLISHER

UNITS

DOLLARS

Marvel

36.56%

35.42%

DC

31.13%

27.22%

IDW

6.17%

8.18%

Image

8.07%

7.32%

Dark Horse

6.35%

6.28%

Dynamite

3.25%

3.22%

Boom

2.12%

2.06%

Zenescope

1.16%

1.11%

Eaglemoss

0.18%

0.98%

Zenescope

0.91%

0.91%

Other

4.08%

7.32%

Marvel's Origin II #1 was the top-selling comic book, though since it didn't appear in Diamond's year-end top 10, that tells us it wasn't one of the year's bigger blockbusters. Once again, only one comic book in the Top 10 was priced below $3.99. The Top 10 comic books for the month:

COMIC BOOK

PRICE

VENDOR

1

Origin II #1

4.99

Marvel

2

Avengers #24.Now

4.99

Marvel

3

Batman #26

3.99

DC

4

Forever Evil #4

3.99

DC

5

Superman Unchained #5

3.99

DC

6

Justice League #25

3.99

DC

7

Harley Quinn #1

2.99

DC

8

Justice League #26

3.99

DC

9

Inhumanity #1

3.99

Marvel

10

Superior Spider-Man #23

3.99

Marvel

Fables Vol. 19 from DC led the graphic novel charts. The Top 10 graphic novels for the month:

GRAPHIC NOVELS AND COLLECTIONS

PRICE

VENDOR

1

Fables Volume 19: Snow White

16.99

DC

2

Adventure Time Volume 2: Pixel Princesses

11.99

Boom

3

Richard Stark's Parker: Slayground HC

17.99

IDW

4

Deadpool Kills Deadpool

14.99

Marvel

5

Star Lord: Worlds On The Brink

7.99

Marvel

6

Nightwing Volume 3: Death Of The Family

16.99

DC

7

Saga Volume 1

9.99

Image

8

Deadpool Volume 3: Good Bad And Ugly

15.99

Marvel

9

Saga Volume 2

14.99

Image

10

The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye

14.99

Image

Here's the list of how many new titles each major publisher shipped. IDW had 88 items on the shelves, contributing volume to that market share record:

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